Summer at Fraser’s Mill

Unraveling Mysteries

A fter bringing her parents up to speed on her adventures, taking a shower, and crashing on her top bunk for a long nap, Grace helped Dad make dinner—sourdough grilled cheese, tomato soup, and some gingersnaps from the store’s baked goods display. Alex had done a good job with the gingersnaps. Grace ought to bake something tomorrow, if she wasn’t too busy.

Dinner came later than usual because they had waited for Mom to get done with a shift at the store. The sun was low in the sky as Grace helped clear up after the meal.

“Ben, did you get the mail today?” Mom asked from the kitchen sink.

“No, I didn’t think of getting it when I got done in the store,” Dad said.

“Oh, I’ll get it,” Grace said, and went out the front door.

It was a nice summer evening, and the front yard grass felt cool under Grace’s bare feet. At the mailbox, she stopped to look through the mail. Ads for pizza places—they didn’t even have chain pizza places in Fraser’s Mill—two credit card offers, political mail from a candidate Grace didn’t plan to support in the midterm election, and a large envelope probably from a place trying to sell insurance. All junk.

“Grace!” A masculine voice caused Grace to look up. Doc strode across his lawn toward her.

She had been dreading this moment, and yet, her heartbeat quickened upon seeing him again.

“Doc!” Grace said. “Hi.”

He reached the mailbox and stood there, towering over her as usual. “Your dad told me you were coming back.”

Grace nodded. “Yes, I’m back. How are you?”

Polite and distant—that was the way to go. But the expression on Doc’s face didn’t look polite and distant. His eyes were intense, and the set of his mouth was determined.

“Grace,” he said. “I was an idiot. I owe you an apology.”

“What?”

“When I yelled at you, the day you asked me to help take apart the float. I was wrong, and I’m sorry.”

Grace stared. He had still been thinking about that too?

“Still mad?” Doc asked.

Grace shook her head. “No. I’m sorry I yelled too. I was confused. I didn’t know why you were upset with me out of the blue like that.”

“The fact is, I was jealous,” Doc said. “The guy you were with on the Fourth of July—”

“Lucas?”

Doc nodded solemnly. “I hadn’t realized you had a boyfriend.”

Grace’s eyes widened, understanding dawning. That was why Doc had been mad. He thought Lucas was her boyfriend. Alex was right—Doc must have liked her after all. No wonder he’d been irritated. After picking her up when her car broke down, taking her shopping, and helping with the parade float, Doc must have thought she was taking advantage of his help while her supposed boyfriend wasn’t around.

“No, no,” Grace said, shaking her head. “Lucas and I weren’t dating. He was one of my co-workers from California, and he was in the area visiting his grandmother.”

Doc’s eyebrows shot up. “I heard he said you were dating.”

Oh, no! How had that gotten around to Doc?

Grace groaned. “He got the wrong idea. We weren’t dating. We went out once.”

A smile crept across Doc’s face like the sun coming from behind a cloud. But all he said was, “I see.”

This puzzle still wasn’t fitting together. “But how did you hear that?” Grace asked. Alex and her parents surely wouldn’t have told anyone. “Did you meet Lucas when he was here?”

Doc shook his head. “Hannah met him. He told her the two of you had been dating since May.”

She remembered Hannah talking to Lucas by the ice cream stand on the Fourth of July. So that’s how that story had gotten out. Hannah hadn’t seemed to appreciate Grace hanging out with Doc. Of course she would have jumped at the opportunity to tell Doc Grace had a boyfriend. Grace didn’t know that she blamed her.

“I went out with Lucas one time in May,” Grace told Doc. “And I replied to some emails he sent. That was it.”

“And I believed third-hand information instead of asking you about him myself.” Doc grimaced. “I’m an even bigger idiot than I thought I was. Jealous, cranky—and stupid.”

Grace shook her head at him. “You don’t need to call yourself all those names,” she said. “It’s all right.”

“We’re good?” Doc asked.

“We’re good.” Grace smiled.

“Wonderful.” He smiled, drawing closer to Grace. “Then I have a question for you. Will you go out with me?”

The world spun around Grace. She hadn’t realized it before, but she’d been waiting a long time for Doc to ask that. There was no question how she felt about him, not anymore. But there was still one thing.

“What about Hannah?” Grace heard herself saying.

“Hannah?” Doc’s forehead furrowed.

“I thought you two were dating! You’ve been going around together all summer.”

His face cleared. “No, she’s just a friend. She came to town this summer and didn’t know a lot of people, so I’ve been showing her around.”

“Really?” That was it? The whole thing between Hannah and Doc was one-sided, all this time?

He nodded. “Really.”

Wow. Alex had been right about everything. Seeing Doc and Hannah together so often, Grace had completely misjudged the situation.

“So how about it?” Doc’s eyes twinkled. “Will you go out with me?”

Grace found herself smiling hugely. “Sure—when?”

“How about tomorrow?”

“That would be wonderful. But not too early—I’m gonna close the store tomorrow at seven.”

“I’ll pick you up at eight,” Doc said. “We could eat at the diner. Unless you don’t want to be seen with me in public.”

Grace laughed. “The diner would be great.”

“Then I’ll see you tomorrow.” Doc’s face crinkled into a smile. “Careful you don’t fall down the stairs answering the door.”